"Yes, in the end, lovers beco spouses."
"..."
"Fallen petals drift on the water, a thousand idle sorrows arise, I silently bla the East Wind.
White-capped waves strike the vast sky, as autumn clouds roll across the horizon.
The East Wind sways the weeping willow’s threads, gossar strands tug at peach blossom petals, while a beaded curtain half-conceals a hibiscus-like face.
The shy flower seems to speak; the gentle jade emanates fragrance.
To achieve a soaring career like a roc on a 90,000-mile journey, one must first endure twenty years of study by snow-lit windows and firefly glow.
My eyes, starved for a glimpse, nearly pierce through; slanderous mouths can only swallow their envy in vain. I am left consud by a bone-deep lovesickness. How can I bear that one parting glance from her?
Let alone a young scholar like myself, even a man of iron and stone would be stirred and ensnared by love."
Sienna Johnson recited the lines sung by the female lead on stage for Adrian Desmond in her clear, lodious voice, but he couldn’t understand a thing. He could hear every single word, but when put together, he had no idea what they ant.
"...My adoptive mother loved listening to operas. When I was in Blackwood, a stage would be set up after the Lunar New Year, and the opera troupe would co to sing dramas, with performances running until the fifteenth of the first lunar month.
My Brother and I would take our small stools to reserve a spot. We were young then, just listening for the excitent, but now, I listen for the emotions..."
Adrian was crude in dealing with emotions and could not understand these subtle sentints and delicate lodies of love. His approach to romance was more direct and brutal: if he liked soone, he must possess them, and drag them straight to bed!
"What’s taking that scholar so long? Will he kiss her or not?" Adrian grew impatient for Zhang Sheng on stage.
"Just eat your food," Sienna said disdainfully.
Adrian had been overly active the previous night and had also gone hungry for a whole day and night. Seeing the small pastries and nuts on the table, he thought, Why should I torture my stomach? So, he grabbed so peanuts from a plate and started eating. Sienna watched the opera, and he watched Sienna.
It took an hour for "The Romance of West Chamber" to end. Sienna applauded and praised the performance, even giving a generous tip.
"Why did you suddenly want to co out and eat? Why didn’t you call when you ca out to eat?"
How could I tell him I left because lanie Carpenter angered ?
"I suddenly felt like eating Orienta cuisine, so I asked Mr. Xavier to drive to find an Orienta Restaurant. I didn’t expect to stumble upon this place. This restaurant is newly opened, and it turns out my friend owns it."
"Why didn’t you wait for when you wanted to eat Orienta cuisine?"
"Didn’t I see Sixth Master was busy?"
He scoffed, "It’s just a doll, after all. Is it worth getting angry over? You’ve used plenty of fake ones in the past too..."
"Shut up!" Sienna, her face flushing red, cut him off.
Sienna looked at Adrian as if he were a pervert, and Adrian was not pleased. "Alright, alright, I won’t use them anymore, okay?"
"No, I think it’s great. When I’m physically indisposed, you can use them. Although I feel a bit uncomfortable about it, it’s better than you marrying several wives, right?"
"I want to use you!"
"If you had tortured like that yesterday, I would have died!"
Adrian had always boasted about the virility of Abyanabad n, and Sienna had witnessed it firsthand yesterday. It was simply ferocious, terrifying... even with a load of aphrodisiacs, it would be impossible to go on for an entire night like that.
If it had been her, Sienna was sure she would have died under Adrian’s relentless assault. "Wait..."
"What’s wrong?" Adrian looked at her, puzzled by her startled reaction.
A thought flashed through Sienna’s mind. "Did the person who drugged you yesterday target ?"
"What do you an?"
"I would never allow you to find other won, so under those circumstances, I would have no choice but to satisfy you myself... Last night, you completely lost control in the latter part of the night. With your strength and frequency then, if it had been who satisfied you, there’s no way the baby in my belly could have survived..." Sienna felt a chill run down her spine at the re thought.
How utterly vicious to co up with such a malicious sche!
If the baby had really been endangered last night, a huge rift would definitely have appeared in her relationship with Adrian. Setting aside whether she would forgive him, Adrian himself would be consud by guilt and remorse when he sobered up.
"It must have been lanie Carpenter’s doing! She did it on purpose! She wanted to have a miscarriage!" Sienna stated with conviction.
"..."
"She’s so malicious!"
Adrian rotated the ring on his ring finger, pondering. "...The matter has not been investigated yet. Don’t jump to conclusions."
Sienna stared at him coldly. "You were definitely drugged at the Carpenter Family’s ho. Besides lanie Carpenter, who else would do such a vicious thing?"
Yesterday at the Carpenter Family residence, I was extrely careful about what I ate and drank; I didn’t even dare to drink the water carelessly.
"...Yesterday, at the Carpenter residence, there was still wine left in the bottle in front of you, but the Servant replaced it with a new one. Was the drug added to that wine?" Sienna racked her brains, recalling the details from last night, and seized upon a suspicious point.
Everything seed to fall into place with a reasonable explanation. "Yesterday, you didn’t eat anything; you only drank wine. I argued with lanie Carpenter, and she stord off in anger. Later, a Servant brought you a new bottle of wine, and you were already affected by the drug on the way back. No matter how you look at it, lanie Carpenter is the pri suspect..." Sienna continued her analysis, her thoughts clear and logical.
"..."
"Adrian, am I right?" She looked at Adrian, seeking confirmation, but he remained seated, lips pressed together, saying nothing.
"Adrian, what do you an by this noncommittal attitude? lanie Carpenter wants to kill , to kill our son! How can you remain indifferent?"
Sienna’s words were not re alarmist talk; given Adrian’s strength and frequency the previous night, she definitely wouldn’t have been able to withstand it. If sothing had gone wrong, it could very well have been one body, two lives lost.
"Damn it!" Sienna slamd the table heavily, her face livid with anger.
"I’ll look into it!" Adrian said.
"If it turns out that it was your cousin who did this, what do you plan to do?" Between old scores and new, Sienna could not forgive lanie Carpenter.
Now that lanie had targeted her child, Sienna certainly couldn’t ignore lanie Carpenter, this ticking ti bomb.
"We’ll talk about it when the ti cos!" Adrian evaded the question.
"I want to know now!"
"Isn’t the matter still unclear? Why are you so sure lanie Carpenter did it? You weren’t such an irrational person before!"
"What if lanie Carpenter did it?"
"Didn’t you always hate hypotheticals? I hate them too! Let’s wait until the matter is thoroughly investigated."
Sienna watched Adrian, his attitude wounding her. Her childhood experiences had left her deeply insecure. She yearned for love but was also afraid of it. That’s why, when it ca to relationships, she was sensitive, hoping to find a dependable man. Before falling in love, she would hesitate and waver, but once she did, she would be unwavering. Yet, after she fell in love with this man, his feelings for her seed to have beco tainted.
"Adrian, do you think that marrying instead of lanie Carpenter ans you’ve wronged her?"
"..."
"Deep down, do you still bla for being so unreasonable and aggressive, preventing you from marrying lanie Carpenter?"
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